Leeds sex offender avoids jail after being caught downloading indecent child images for the second time

Jack Lancaster was the subject of to a sexual harm prevention order when he accessed four images of children being abused.

The 23-year-old was handed a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of making indecent images of children and one count of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

Lancaster was also given a suspended prison sentence in 2015 after downloading more than 1,000 indecent images of children and befriending a 12-year-old girl on Facebook who he then persuaded to send him semi-naked photos of herself.

Prosecutor Michael Greenhalgh said Kik Messenger informed West Yorkshire Police that an account using Lancaster's email address had uploaded an indecent image of a child to their server on June 5, 2018.

Officers searched his home on at Penda's Way, Crossgates, and seized two mobile phones and a computer tower.

The phone believed to have uploaded the photo to Kik Messenger was damaged during examination, but three category A images were found on the other phone.

One category B image had been deleted from the phone, in breach of his sexual harm prevention order.

Mr Greenhalgh said Lancaster had searched the internet for the images using terms including 'six-year-old'.

During interview Lancaster admitted that he would download indecent images from a sharing platform and upload them for others to view.

Timothy Jacobs, mitigating, said Lancaster pleaded guilty to the offences at an early stage.

Lancaster was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to complete a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Lancaster was also placed on the sex offender register for 10 years.

Sentencing, Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said: "On the last occasion, it would have been abundantly clear that the court regards these offences as serious.

"Maybe you still did not understand because if you had you would not be there.

"You accessing these images on the internet only encourages those who are responsible for putting them on the internet in the first place to create such images using young children for abuse.

"This is your last chance of staying out of prison."